Botanic gardens play a pivotal role in safeguarding biodiversity, driving research, and supporting the sustainable horticultural future of our region. Across Australia, these efforts are strengthened when gardens collaborate, share expertise, and work alongside government, industry, and community partners. Kings Park’s long-standing plant development program is an excellent example of the impact such partnerships can deliver.
Kings Park is home to the only ornamental plant breeding program in the world with environmental outcomes as its primary focus. Since the 1970s, it has been a leader in Australian plant-breeding research, developing more than 50 varieties of Western Australian native plants now sold nationally and internationally. Each plant selected for the program must demonstrate strong genetic diversity and the ability to be reliably propagated, ensuring both horticultural performance and long-term sustainability.
Commercial releases from the program are supported by plant breeding rights, which protect the intellectual property of new varieties. This mechanism ensures that the Botanic Gardens and Park Authority (BGPA), which manages Kings Park, receives a modest royalty from every sale, generating an important return for the BGPA to reinvest directly into the conservation and development of Western Australian species.
Grevillea ‘City Lights’. Credit Digby Growns
A recent success story is Grevillea ‘City Lights’, bred by Kings Park and produced in partnership with Benara Nurseries. The cultivar has become the top-selling plant in the State Government’s Treebate program, launched in January 2025 to encourage Western Australians to plant native trees on their properties. As a result, ‘City Lights’ is now being distributed more widely across the state, contributing to the expansion of urban canopy and the enrichment of suburban biodiversity.
With its upright habit, dense foliage, and striking orange toothbrush flowers that attract birds and insects year-round, ‘City Lights’ embodies the horticultural and ecological value that well-designed breeding programs can deliver. Its success also highlights the importance of coordinated initiatives between botanic gardens, nurseries, and government agencies.
The achievements of Kings Park underscore the broader value of collaboration across the botanic garden sector. When gardens unite to share best practice, research capacity, and community engagement strategies, they amplify their collective impact—supporting resilient landscapes, strengthening conservation outcomes, and ensuring Australian native plants continue to thrive in a changing climate.
The Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority’s (BGPA) Kings Park Plant Development Program was awarded a bronze award in the ‘Best Practice and Innovation’ category at the 2025 Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) Western Australia Achievement Awards.
